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Phony Shooting Report Prompts 4-Hour Standoff In Park Forest

CHICAGO (STMW) — Police apparently received a phony call that prompted a standoff around a south suburban Park Forest home for about four hours Friday night, officials said.

Illinois State Police called Park Forest officers at 6:47 p.m. after receiving a call from a male who claimed that he shot his mother in a home in the 400 block of Shabbona Drive near Blackhawk Drive, police said.

The man ended his call with a loud bang, according to a statement from Park Forest Police.

Park Forest police, as well members of the South Suburban Emergency Response Team, surrounded the south suburban home for about four hours.

But police eventually determined that no one was in the home and later located the home’s residents, who were unharmed, police said.

Police said the call was “unfounded.” Officers left the neighborhood by 11 p.m., a Park Forest dispatcher said.

No one is in custody as Park Forest police investigate the false report as a “criminal matter.”